(05 - 09 - 97 )
Hey Diary, or as some of the voices in my head prefer it, Journal, it's me...Mike!
Mike Pellino to be more precise, haha. I don't know why I'm talking about my name like it matters though, guess I'm just weird like that. It's not like anyone but me is going to ever read this.
I just can't wait to tell you about what happened the first day of school: So, basically, my nona gave me the ride from home to the new high school I'm attending: Bear Valley High School. It's the only High School in this town we call Wawanakwa. I've been pretty excited to visit it ever since I was little, haha. Since all of my family told me High School would be better than Middle School, anyway.
Well, everyone except my Parents, anyway. But I don't like to think about my parents.
So anyway, the first thing I did was immediately look around the place the moment I stepped out of the car and finished saying my "Goodbye" to my nona. Once I got a good look at the place I saw what I had the next four years to look forward to: it seemed like a big brown and white building, its shape pretty typical for a public school in all honesty in the front of it was a statue of a man, possibly the school founder - I don't recall his name right now, haha. I was too amazed by even being here at all! Oh yeah, and the place was three stories tall. It had a lot of buildings behind it too, some extra classes, the gym, your usual high school stuff. It was nothing special, really, but it was the highest school in town! Outside of that prep school, anyway.
Anyway, once I was inside is when I had to battle with the crowd of people to find what my homeroom class was - since it was day one for everyone it was pretty packed, haha. I tried to ask everywhere where the orientation offices were, but it seemed that everyone was too busy with something. At least from my experience anyway. The first person I asked was actually pretty rude:
"Aren't you tall enough to see where they are yourself?"
"I don't know where is it; that's all." I replied to them with, offended but more caught off guard than being mean - it's how I normally am really. I don't like hurting people or causing arguments. I I kinda just take everything. They didn't seem to care for what I had to say:
"Frickin' freshman." I heard, but I kept going around and asking anyone who I thought could help me out:
"Hey, where are the Orientation offices?"
But the responses were all either:
"Find them yourself!"
"Get away from me, creep!"
"Where'd you come from, California?" and that one was pretty rude, sure I'm tan but there other tan kids here too. Jerk.
"Why don't you see a dentist first?"
Or even:
"Fuck you."
The last one was pretty rude by the way. In my day people had actual respect! Oops, hold on there, haha! I'm trying not to sound like a grumpy old man here, haha. My bad….had a moment. I have a lot of moments like that. Anyway, back on track here:
I thought i'll never find help until someone arrived:
"Mike? Mike, is that you?"
"Huh?" was my first thought, but it was quickly turned into excitement when I saw someone who finally I actually recognized:
It was my old friend - no, BEST friend - Cody. In fact, Cody's really my only actual friend. Where do I begin with him? First off, he's really a nice guy. His skin is always so nice and young looking, it's like he never has to shave at all! I mean, okay, I kept myself silky smooth too but it was actually him who taught me. But yeah….anyway he's also pretty shorter than me even more than most people are, haha. We joke that he looks like a middle schooler sometimes. His teal eyes are like a big blue ocean whenever I look at them and they really go well with his short brown hair and skinny thin body. I just wish he'd wear less baggy pants sometimes. I like his choice in sweaters though, all creamy just like that fancy shirt he wears under.
But um, anyway...I got sidetracked there….back to our conversation:
"What are you doing here?" I remember asking to him, "Didn't you go to the prep school on the other side of town?"
"Well...um, your aunt and uncle told my mom they thought it'd be good for you to have a friend with you when you go into High School, they talked to the principal and he apparently said it was all good! Isn't that totally radical, dude? For once we're in school together!"
"I know, it's SO Rad!"
We made a friendly handshake, in fact it was a bit of a hug, heheh, but then I remembered:
"Sorry, I forgot." I said "I'm searching for the orientation office, do you know where it is?"
"I...think so…..I think it's….um."
"You have no clue either, do you?"
"Not really."
"AAAH!" I screamed and kneeled, I felt I got the worst of lucks. Even with Cody there to pat me on the back in sympathy - which I appreciated.
"It's OK, we can search it together, we still have enough time."
And then the school bell rang, making me really start panicking because I still didn't know where my homeroom class was at all thanks to so much people being jerks! It didn't take for me to start sounding like an old man complaining about the modern times…..again.
"Back in my day, we didn't even have any stupid hootin' hollerin' bells! We had to be there on time or we was expelled!"
Luckily Cody snapped me out of it. Thank God.
"Excuse me." then someone else approaches; he was a student like us, but having a well-built body a bit more closer to my height than Cody's, a military-style haircut, tags and camouflage-styled clothes. "But I couldn't help notice that you two seem quite distressed, is there any way I could be of service?"
"Um..hi, Mike Pellino." I introduced myself "I'm new here and I want to seek the orientation office."
"Brick McArthur, reporting for duty!" he saluted, yeah, actually saluted, "And just follow me, I'll show you exactly where to go!"
"Oh, thank you so much!"
"Yeah dude!" Cody chimed in, "It's like totally tubular of you to do that for us dude!", he then swiftly tried to get into this 'I don't really care' attitude,"Even though we could totally figure it our for ourselves eventually, ya know. Still, I guess I appreciate it kinda."
"Just doing my job, follow me!"
And follow him we did, me with a smile while Cody still trying to seriously pass as this 'I don't care about anything' cool dude. I thought it was cute though….in that little kid kinda way because Cody kinda looks like….nevermind. I'll just move on.
Brick had managed to get us information to move around the school and even lead us to where we're gonna have our homeroom: Room 301, on the third floor. It was an Algebra glass, and with Cody being my designated partner I knew I was gonna have an easy time with it. He's told me stories of how he's the only one most of the time to even pay attention during these classes, even become a master at dodging spit balls apparently.
Anyway, our teacher was a man in his late 40s with few silver hairs here and there; the teacher valued punctuality, but since it was the first day, he let our small incident slide. Which I was relieved for. Just as I was relieved me and Cody were still able to sit next to each other.I was really excited, and if Cody knocked off the act I think he would be too!
As a whole, Algebra class was alright. Nothing really special about it, I would've been lost with half of that stuff if it wasn't for Cody, haha.
Then, after it was all over, oh and our next class which was Geography, we met back with Brick so he could show me - and Cody - around the school building I admired the guy's friendliness - he was much nicer than that 'fuck you' guy. I still can't get over how rude that was.
Anyway, Brick's tour was pretty interesting:starting with the third floor which was really nothing but the stairs to the roof, a few storage and janitor closets, some bathrooms, and a lot of classrooms. Then the second floor which was nothing but classrooms, bathrooms, the rooms for some of the school clubs, the computer lab and the teacher's lounge. Then the first floor which had the cafeteria and kitchen, the main offices, a few classrooms and also had the auditorium on the other side of this cool looking breezeway. Oh and the buildings behind the school, where the classes for the 'special' kids were as well as shop class, weights and conditioning, and the gym. Behind and beside the gym were were all the outdoor sports fields were by the way.
He also introduced us to some people too: Starting with Owen. He was a big guy, and I mean big. Like, very overweight, haha. But he was nice. He had blonde hair and dark eyes, and judging by his shirt he loved the country! Haha. Not much else to really say about him though. Our conversation with him went like:
"Who's the new kid?"
Cody answered: "I'm Cody, and this is my man Mike!" not gonna lie, I kinda wanted to blush when he said 'My man'. But, um, anyway!
"Sweet! Name's Owen!" the big guy said back to him, "Nice to meet ya! I don't think I ever saw either of you before!"
"No? That's because we're new here."
"Well, Cody is, haha" I admitted to him, "I just, um, don't have a lot of friends is all...heheh."
"I can be your friend!" Owen tried to ask, in a pretty friendly manner.
"That's cool! Thanks, heheh."
"I just hope you don't mind my other friend."
"Other friend?"
Then, he appeared almost as if on cue: His name was Noah. He was just slightly above Cody in height, but was as tan as I was. Cody calls it 'crispy'. Anyway, Noah was that way because he looked like he was from India. He had dark brown hair, and wore a sweater over a collared shirt like Cody, but had a third shirt under all that too. He also wore shorts instead of baggy cargo pants. That's about all really, except that he almost always had this snarky look to himself.
"There you are, Owen." Noah said, "I thought you were still in the cafeteria, surprised to see that you're not."
"I was going that way, oh; by the way, these are Cody and Mike."
"Hi!"
"Hey, heheh."
"I see" Noah said to us, "Well, Hi or whatever; come on, we need to split of them."
"What? Why? We just met them!"
"Because it's the first day of school and there's things that need to be done, come on!" and the two walked off, leaving me, Cody and Brick to ourselves for now. I just shrugged and said:
"Well, I guess that's that? Heheh."
The tour continued, this time, we saw the cafeteria. Since, well, it was lunch time after all, haha. As such, it was where most of the kids were basically hanging out at - even though lunch was optional. Brick explained to us what was basically, ya know, the cliques of the school and everything. Still, the cafeteria was huge, all things considered anyway, haha.
"I think you know that, like much of any other high school, there's a clique system."
"Heh, yeah, I bet, haha"
"And what are these cliques?" Cody asked, always wanting to know things like that, "Not that I care, but, ya know."
"Well...the skaters are over there…" he said as he gestured to the skater kids, which are precisely what you'd expect them to be, "And the Rockers, the Jocks, the Goths, the geniuses, though others want to call them more meaner names, and finally, well…"
"Well what?" I asked after he stopped for a bit.
"Well, let's just say, the last group is the group of girls you probably don't want to associate with too much. Or at least, be careful around."
"Why's that?"
"Um, well, I forgot what they were called alright? I just heard someone say that about them."
"...OK" whatever it was, I didn't wanted to found out. I had some ideas though. Anyway, that was pretty much it for the tour. Me, Cody and Brick kind of parted ways at that point.
But then, we had lunch, it was basic school food. A hamburger, a bag of chips, some water, though Cody went with soda, and well, rice. Nothing really special. None of it was really all that good. I think that I'll bring my own lunch from here on out.
But then, we were approached by a couple of students:one of them looked like your typical punk boy or goth, with a green mohawk on his head and a skull t-shirt and everything. The other looked like a redhead, with freckles and more of a less well-off look to himself. They looked like they wanted trouble.
"Who are those guys?" Cody asked to me as they approached, to which I just said:
"I don't know."
"Check out the new kid, Scott." the guy with the green mohawk said, smirking with a smug face.
"Um….you we're both new kids" I commented, "In fact...there's a lot of new kids today. Technically every freshman is a new kid."
"And he's also smart; that's double for us." the red haired one, Scott, smirked as he cracked his knuckles.
I knew what was coming up, and it seemed that Cody did too. Admittedly though, I kind of blacked out at that moment, all I remember was Cody grabbing my shirt tightly before I let out a deep gasp; and I totally blacked out.
When I came to my senses, I found myself in the school infirmary, still missing the shirt from earlier.I also saw Duncan and Scott in the infirmary with me though, and…..they actually looked more roughed up than I did. And right on my side was Cody, looking at me with a concerned face.
"What happened…..?" I weakly asked Cody.
"You were A BEAST! And I loved it!"
"What?"
"You went totally crazy on those guys!"
"I….did?"
"Yes, I didn't know you were from New Jersey!"
"I'm not…..I think...what would make you…...oh no…."
"Oh no what?"
"Um….nevermind!", I did NOT want him to find out. At least Cody didn't asked too much questions.
The rest of the day was uneventful: we had three classes left. Art, Home Ec, and Gym Class.
Actually, let me talk about Gym class: the teacher was the same man on the cafeteria.I didn't mention before because there all he did was work at the lunch line. But man, he was big. As in buff. Kinda scary too. In the Cafeteria, he was known as Chef Hatchet. In the gym, he was either Coach Hatchet or Master Chief. It didn't help that the class was pretty much like in the army - which Brick seemed to enjoy but I can't say that me or Cody Cody is pretty quick when it comes to running. I'm pretty quick too, but damn whenever he made us run laps around the court or the football field that boy kept passing me up, haha.
Who knew Cody can be that athletic?
Too bad it's only in his leg speed though...he's still pretty weak in every other category. Though he has a good bit of cleverness that lets him get through situations easily! He can actually electrify a dodgeball with his shirt! Heck, he even knows how to make it home in on ya!
Did I mention he's a great guy? Wish I knew how to do the things he knows how to do!
Anyways, after Gym class, it was time to hit the showers since we both worked up a sweat. Me and Cody weren't afraid, though once I took off my shirt, since well, I didn't want to look weird or out of place, I once again blacked out. I don't remember how the experience went but when I asked Cody about it:
"You just got a jersey accent and were kind of a cocky tough guy. Nothing really happened."
"Oh boy…"
"What?"
"N-Nothing dude. Nothing you need to worry about."
Then, I noticed Cody was looking at a group of girls passing by: a bunch of the goth girls. He seemed to be fixated on one in particular: one who was pale, mostly decked out in dark green, and didn't seem to pay mind to anything except what was in front of her. Neither me nor him even knew that girls' name yet he looked at her like she was the person of his dreams.
"Isn't that the most bodacious chick you ever saw?" Cody asked to me.
"Um….I….guess?" eh, she was alright. But like, I didn't know a thing about her.
"Yeah…...she sure is! You think if I ask her out that she'd say yes?"
"How am I supposed to know? You ask her!"
"Oh boy, heheh, wish me luck, buddy! I think I could totally woo her with my manly charms, but, I don't know, what should I say to her first?"
"Maybe ask what's her name first!"
"Will do, again, wish me luck!"
And he left my side to go to her.
I didn't hear what he said to her, but it ended in him being slapped pretty hard. I winced for him. Didn't take him long for him to walk back to me rubbing the cheek she slapped:
"Her name's Gwen."
"And?"
"She doesn't wanna go out with me."
"Tzzzzzz, that's cold as ice." I replied
"I know, but I'm not giving up!"
"Wha?"
"You heard me, I'll get her heart by the end of the school year...OK, not in the literal sense."
"Oh boy…"
"What?"
"Nevermind…...nothing! Heheh."
"..."
I just smiled sheepishly, Cody just shrugged and said:
"Whatevs, we should get going home now. Unless you signed up for one of the sports, haha."
"Did you sign up for anything?"
"Um….I haven't decided yet."
"Me neither, heh...let's just make sure that we pick fast….if we want to….I don't know if I want to."
The rest of the chat was pretty nervous. I kind of feel uncomfortable writing it out, but I guess if I have to…
"So, what would you like to do tomorrow?"
"I dunno man, wait and see?"
"Agreed."
"Great!"
And later on, the classes ended and we were on our way home. That was pretty much it for my first day of High School. My aunt picked both of us up since Cody's mom advises her and my Uncle that I shouldn't be on School Buses.
"So...how's your day?" my aunt asked
And well, I reiterated the story I just wrote down here to her, haha. Minus a couple parts anyway, I didn't want her knowing about the fight incident or the shower thing. Haha. But still, I was really happy that me and Cody can have some time to rekindle our friendship.
Looking forward to Day Two! Ciao!